Battles:: A Concise Dictionary

Rating:
Summary: Concise dictionary has limited coverage
Review: Ian Hogg is an old hand at the military history game. He mostly writes about artillery and other weapons systems, but he obviously has a reasonable command of the generalities of warfare throughout the ages, because he shows it here. This is a collection of short descriptions of battles from all eras of history. It's a bit tilted towards the British and World War 2, but that's to be expected: the author's British, and the Big One is his specialty.

There is a larger problem, though. Since the articles are short, you don't learn much, because there are so few, you're not that likely to find what you're looking for. A historian who isn't normally interested in military history might find this moderately useful: the author will give you a summary of the battle of the Somme or whatever, in a couple of paragraphs. Anyone that interested in the field is going to find things that are left out (from the Battle of Kadesh to numerous engagements in later times) there are just too many things to list in this short of a book. There is a lot of information here, don't get me wrong: I'm not complaining about what's in the book, but what isn't. If you're interested in military history, this is a good starting place as a reference, but don't count on it by itself.

Rating:
Summary: Good Encyclopedic Account of History's Pivotal Battles
Review: This book is truly exactly what it says, "A concise Dictionary of Battles." Detailing every major battle or military happening from Marathon to Bosnia, this book does an efficient job at outlining the major battles of history with as much information as one could imagine fitting into a paragraph on battles that often result in entire volumes being written to say the same thing. This book will be a disappintment to someone searching for a detailed account of anything, but it would certainly be a great buy for a student in need of general military history who desires a efficient account the greatest battles of history without having to read a 500 page book to find what is quickly presented by Hogg. A buy worth its price without question.